The gay man and the senator

By Michael J.W. Stickings

A question from Michael Rogers:

Which nominee for President of the United States is homophobic and has a gay chief of staff at his Senate office in Washington, DC?

A. John McCain
B. Barack Obama

That's right, McCain's chief of staff, Mark Buse, is gay. (Rogers and SiriusXM radio host Michelangelo Signorile have outed him.) Which doesn't bother me at all. He can be, and should be allowed to be, whatever he is, and if he's gay, so be it.

No, what bothers me -- and many others, of course -- is that Buse is working for McCain, who is running on an extremist social conservative platform that includes the gay-bashing agenda of the homophobic right (now central to the GOP), indeed, who has a long history of supporting anti-gay causes and initiatives.

Maybe Buse hates himself, maybe he doesn't care about gay rights (or simply fair treatment for gays), maybe he thinks too highly of McCain for his own good, maybe he's just an unabashed opportunity. Whatever. The fact is, as Rogers puts it, he is "working against the interests of the gay and lesbian community while living in a gay man." And that's pretty despicable.

Just like the gay-bashing of his party and the anti-gay policies of his lord and master, John McCain.